Views of the Amazing Lake District

Visiting the Lake District is amazing. There is plenty to see and do and the views of the Lake District can’t be beat.

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If you haven’t made it to the Lake District, you will want to go. I’m a sucker for gorgeous landscapes, but you add some woolly sheep and I’m a goner. Planning a trip to the UK with no real goal in mind except to see the Harry Potter sights, we booked a caravan in Segbergh for a week. I’d seen photos of the stunning Lake District, heard some gent named Wordsworth recommended it, and off we went.

Rain or Shine, the Lake District is Photogenic

As you might expect, we arrived in the middle of quite the rain storm.  Parts of the Lake District receive upwards of 200 days of rain per year, so we were not at all surprised.  It’s okay because we had packed our boots and raincoats; I had umbrellas in the trunk, and we were ready.

What we weren’t ready for was the tiny, narrow roads with hedges so high that there seemed nowhere to go when a car approached from the opposite direction.  We certainly didn’t have to worry about driving on the left, because there is no left or right, only the middle.

At one point, there were people standing all about with an elderly lady (about 80) backing down the hill to let us through.  Boy, did we feel guilty.  One older guy stopped and said, “Did you see my mum?”  His mum?!  Um yeah, she’s halfway to town just because of us.

To say the Lake District is charming just doesn’t cut it.  With many houses still clinging to the tradition of white-washed exteriors, and hardy gray Herdwick sheep grazing in the pastures, grilled Cumberland sausage to wake up to with your eggs, it is much, much more.

These shaggy cuties are well-known in the Lake District.  Herdwick sheep is a very hardy breed first brought over to England by the vikings.

We felt welcomed before we even found our AirBnB caravan.  Siobhan and her whole family welcomed us, including the cat.  As she brought us some tea and cake, her barn cat thought a nice dead mouse was a fitting welcome gift.  Everyone was welcoming!  We loved it!

There wasn’t really any wifi nearby and we had to drive to town and nick it from the local health clinic.  So, everything shuts down at 5:00 sharp.  With the butcher telling me how to cook my lamb chops, and the farmer’s daughter selling me her fresh eggs, it was relaxing, cozy, and I could have stayed a lot longer than my scheduled seven days.

Oh, and then there’s the beauty of the entire 800 square miles of national park to explore, with lakes and fells and tarns, oh my!  We crept up craggy cliffs, listened to babbling brooks, saw tree-climbing sheep, tasted some homemade cheese and had the best scones of our lives.

In the middle of July, we weren’t alone.  Out of the 16 million that like to head up that way each year, at least half must have been there when we were, but it didn’t feel croweded, or overrun.  In fact, at times it felt downright sleepy.

One thing we did was take a lot of photos, so sit back and enjoy some of the images we made in between rain drops!

Visit the Lake District National Park Website for more info.

Have you been to the Lake District?  Any tips or hints you can tell us?

Author Bio: Corinne Vail is a travel photographer, food lover, and a perpetual traveler who has been travel writing for over 14 years. For many years she lived overseas in Germany, Japan, Turkey, South Korea, and the Netherlands teaching the children of the US. military. She’s visited over 90 countries, and she’s not stopping anytime soon.